House conservatives mobilized Wednesday evening to tank a planned vote on a President Donald Trump-backed budget blueprint laying the groundwork
House conservatives mobilized Wednesday evening to tank a planned vote on a President Donald Trump-backed budget blueprint laying the groundwork for the president’s first-year legislative agenda, commonly known as his “one big, beautiful bill.”
Speaker Mike Johnson punted on voting for the budget resolution after spending roughly 80 minutes working to persuade holdouts to get onboard. Deficit-focused House conservatives are justifying their opposition to the budget resolution, saying that the Senate-amended blueprint lacks enforceable spending cuts and would increase the deficit.
Johnson said the House could vote on the budget blueprint as early as Thursday morning. Given House Republicans’ 220-213 majority, Johnson can afford to lose just three GOP votes, assuming all members are present and voting.
Failure to pass the budget resolution — the first stage in the budget reconciliation process — before lawmakers leave for a two-week Easter recess will delay both chambers from beginning to negotiate a massive tax and spending bill seeking to fund the president’s border security and tax priorities.
Johnson told reporters earlier on Wednesday that he was confident the House would pass the resolution on the floor Wednesday evening.
“The president’s been willing to help … I think we get this job done,” Johnson told reporters.
Despite House and Senate GOP leadership urging House conservatives to support the budget resolution and find consensus on spending cuts later, House GOP holdouts are concerned that the resolution instructions for the Senate fail to ensure significant spending reduction.
